Polish Innovation Nest Announces Call For Next Edition of ACCELERATE Program

Like it? Share it!

Innovation Nest, a Krakow-based seed fund and accelerator, announces the call for the 3rd edition of its ACCELERATE program. The call for applicants went out on Monday and the deadline for applying is not until September 30th, so there is still plenty of time to send in applications. Prospective applicants fill out a form on the Innovation Nest site and intriguing teams are invited to interview with the firm’s partners. From that group, 6 startups will be invited to participate in their Customer-Development workshops in mid-October. Those who make it to this point will ideally already have a prototype of their product, so that they are able to interact with customers. Following the workshops, Innovation Nest will make a decision about admitting teams to the program and offering the initial funding. The terms offered are $25,000 (€19,000) in exchange for 8% equity and the program will culminate with a 3-week trip to Silicon Valley in January 2014. There, participants will attend intensive meetings and continue to develop their products or service in anticipation of launch. Then, following the completion of the program, there will be your standard demo day.

Innovation Nest seeks SaaS startups targeted at business or consumers. They state that they prefer applicants who will think globally and want to create innovative products and services, so those with only minor ambitions would be advised not to apply. The previous 2 editions of the program, which was established in 2012 because the team at Innovation Nest felt that startups needed assistance with defining and verifying their business models, have attracted 100 projects to the program and 14 teams to the Customer-Development workshops that they’ve held. The firm says that they decided to establish an acceleration program because Of the teams which have participated in the program, Innovation Nest has thus far invested in Cloud Your Car, Nearbox, Landingi, and Visuu. There are only 5 other companies in the Innovation Nest portfolio (ColibriTool, PressPad, UXPin, iTraff, and Use It Better), so these programs have clearly served as a solid source of investment opportunities for the fund.

This is not the only accelerator in Cracow, as we have recently learned that Rafal Han, the Cracow-based angel investor whose portfolio includes Y-Combinator-backed Estimote, DuckieDeck and iTraff, also launched an accelerator and a startup academy called Chance Academy, and has already accepted the first class in the program, that includes a mentorship, office space and a startup tour. Rafal Han is also a mentor at the Accelerate.